Learning Reflections 14 of Seminar in English Language Teaching



Learning Reflections 14

Seminar in English Language Teaching

 

 

18 April 2017

        In that day, my professor assigned me to read the ELT journal about “The end of CLT: a context approach to language teaching of Stephen Bax”.  My friend and I discussed this topic and then, we presented in front of class.

We discussed that;

       Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has served the language teaching profession well for many years. The benefits of an emphasis on communication are widely accepted in principle by professionals everywhere. This article will argue CLT, although it has served a useful function in the profession, particularly as a corrective to shortcomings in previous methodologies, CLT is now having a negative effect, and needs to be replaced as our main focus.

       Everywhere pay attention to context; good training courses pay attention to context. However, the dominance of methodology in general, and CLT in particular, means that their attention to context is secondary, and often haphazard. Novice teachers, as we have seen, fight against context when they should be working with it. It is therefore time for the profession to place methodology and Communicative Language Teaching where they belong—in second place—and recognize that the learning context, including learner variables, is the key factor in successful language learning.

Professor taught me about Major trends in the Global ELT Field. She summarized that;

Trends 1 : Changing perspectives on English teaching and learning

Nowadays, more and more research and discussions have focused on the issues of “World Englishes” and English as a lingua franca (ELF) rather than simply referring to any English spoken outside of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia as EFL.

Trends2: Changes in goals of English teaching and learning

-          The goals of ELT have changed from focusing solely on developing language skills and mimicking native English speakers to fostering a sense of social responsibility in students

-          To prepare students to imitate native English speakers as language learners but that it should produce fully competent language users, critical thinkers, and constructive social change agents, as Crystal (2004) and Cook (2005) noted.

Trend 3: Changes in approaches to teaching

The 21st century is referred as the “Postmethods Era” by many scholars (Kumaravadivelu, Brown, Larsen-Freeman, and Mellow to name a few), where the focus of teaching is on eclecticism. Eclecticism involves the use of a variety of language learning activities, each of which may have very different characteristics and may be motivated by different underlying assumptions. Today, the use of L1 in L2 pedagogy and the use of different accents in listening activities and tests are encouraged in teaching and learning.

Trend 4: Changes in teaching content, curriculum design, and assessment

 Trend 5: Expanding the dimension of communicative competence

 

Trend 6: Changing views of an effective English educator

           With the changing views of communicative competence and the awareness of intercultural competence, perceptions of what constitutes an effective English teacher are also changing. Recent studies on World Englishes and ELF, as well as the roles of nonnative-English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in the TESOL field, have made more people recognize that the effectiveness of English teachers should be determined by their linguistic, instructional, and intercultural competence rather than simply by their linguistic identity. We want to make sure that our students are served by well-prepared and well qualified teachers regardless their first language background.

Trend 7: Rapid development and integration of information technology in ELT

Trend 8: Changing roles and increasing responsibilities of teachers

 

 

         I find easy that Major trends in the Global ELT Field because the word and the grammar are easy to understand. I find some information before learning.

         I find difficult in The end of CLT because he used the hard words and grammar. There are lot of information. I am unclear some topic in this journal.

         I’m confused about the difficult points that I can’t understand.